The Irish standard., 1887-01-01
POPULAR FALLACiES.

Beliefs Which Hold Their Ground in De-
tiance of Educational Processes.
England slaureate wrote, many years
ago, that g knowledge grows, but
wisdom lingers.' 1t is, however, open
to doubt whether knowledge is not
quite as much given to lingering as
wisdom. The popular beliefs which
still hold their ground in defiance Of
educational processes are often noth-
ing less than amazing, and of this the
daily papers from time to time afford
proof. For instance, an esteemed con-
temporary recently published as a
'.speciar' story about man suffer-
ing from living snakes in his stomach.
The narrative was circumstantial and
specific. The man was supposed to
have swallowed the eggs OF these
snakes three years ago. They were
hatched in his stomach. They lived
there, two Of them for two years and
the third for three years, and they gave
the poor man great deal of pain and
trouble. All the particulars were set
forth as soberly and apparently in as
good faith as though we were still in
the Middle Ages, and as though the
science of physiology had not emerged
from crude and infantile state.
No doubt thousands of people read
that story without questioning its
truth, and it is equally certain that the
majority of them look upon such a
narrative as in no way making an
undue demand upon their credulity.
That man should swallow young
snake Or q snakes egg, and that it
should develope and live in his stom-
ach, is of course the kind OF yarn
which nobody could accept who had
the smallest knowledge Of physiology,
because such knowledge would con-
vince them that the alleged fact WAS
an impossibility; that the snakes eggs
it swallowed, would not be hatched
but digested; that a young reptile, If it
should or could find its way into g hui
man stomach, would incontinently die
there; and that all stories OF live snakes
harbored in peoples insides are neces-
sarily inventions Of the crudest descrip-
tion. But though every school-boy
ought to know this, it is only too evi-
dent that q great many people do not
know it, and that these continue to
put faith in fictions the fundamental
absurdity OF which might commend
them to the simple aborigines. In
the story Of the snakes already re-
ferred to it is gravely stated that one
of the elected ophidians was a garter
snake. The story would have been just
as true ii an anaconda had been select
ed to figure in it. .....
The newspapers that print ridiculous
stories of this kind are not altogether
blameless, for though they do not di-
rectly indorse the statements they give
currency to them, and no doubt there
are many confding folks who still be-
lieve things because they find them in
the papers. But considering the in1-
mense revenues spent on popular edu~
cation in this country it is not unrea-
sonable to expect, at the close OF the
nineteeth century, an emancipation
from at least the more crude popular
fal}acies which ignorance formerly fos-
tered, and when such grotesque cases
OF credulity as the Mercer County
(Ohio) story of the man being con-
vcrted into a red-hot statue occur, and
the dissemination and growth of the
stories show how wide is the area Of
Egyptian darkness which favors the
evolution Of such rubbish, it becomes
clear that great deal Of work-and
even pioneer work at that--remains to
be done. The people who believe in
red-hot stone statues and living
snakes in mems stomachs are in GER
tain branches OF knowledge, which
ought to be common property, hope
lcssly behind. the age. Perhaps it is
too late to do much for them, but GER
tain1y their Successors ought not to be
permitted to grow up equally be-
nighted, and the infusion Of little
more practical science into the COM
mon school course is plainly required
by the survival of the fallacies we have
cited and many others which are not
less deeply rooted.-N. 7. Tribune.
The Pullman Car Works.